Fishy Business

1 more month to go before the move and it’s time to start packing up. The first one to go are the poor fish since there is no immediate plan for a fish tank at the new place. But despite my best efforts, I can’t find anybody to flog off the tilapia or Tila as it is known.

So what to do? No choice but to take up the suggestions of some evil friends from FB and [insert music – deng deng deng deng]. But how to kill something that I seen grow from a mere 3 cm to almost close to 8 inches? Must do it the most humane way.

First catch it first. The poor thing could sense its fate and put up a big struggle splashing water all over the floor. Seriously got no heart to put a knife through it so put it in a bag and stuff in into the freezer. At least cannot see or hear the struggling sound as it flaps its life away. 2 hours later, remove it and dunk it into a pot of boiling water! Yes we gonna have steam tilapia the Teochew style. After steaming, add some ginger, salted vegetables, cut chilli and voila. Dinner is served!

Er apart from me, nobody else knew the steam tilapia on the table was poor former Tila. I picked up the chop stick and then….it opened its eye and mouth and jumped off the table. There was absolute mayhem in the house. Everybody was shocked and stunned and the kids started jumping around. In the confusion nobody knew where Tila landed and finally when things had calmed down a bit, we started looking for it. But it was nowhere to be found!

And then we heard a purr from Toby, our cat. There was a wicked grin in its face! Can it be? Oh no………

The Singapore Song By Rony Tan

I like Corrine May but somehow her National Day song doesn't stuck a chord or gives that lump in the throat feeling. This is so much better but still not that rousing or have that catchy beat that makes one sing along. Give me those good old songs like Stand Up for Singapore or Count On Me Singapore anytime.

Singapore Garden Festival

This is like the 4th ? straight year that I attended this show. The first year the excitement was there but somehow the interest seems to have waned a lot. After all, see one flower, 2 flowers, after some time see until blur blur. But this year the Princess came along and she took all the photos.

More photos on my Facebook.

Yong Vui Kong

The story of Yong Vui Kong, a Malaysian, is like a story out of a Hong Kong’s gangster movie. Left home at the age of 12, he first followed a gambler before eking out a living on the streets. He eventually left for the big town and ended up working for a syndicate. Unlike the movie though, he did not become the trusted lieutenant or usurps the big boss. Instead he ended in death row in Singapore and all this before even turning 21! 

Seems like his boss made use of him as a mule to smuggle drugs into Singapore. Of course inevitably he got arrested and under our law, the judge had no choice but to pass the mandatory death sentence (MDR). He has been in jail since 2007 when he was arrested at the age of 18. Supposed to be put to death in December 2009, he has had 2 temporary reprieve as his lawyer tries and pulls out all stops to get the death sentence set aside.

The local and even the Malaysian media has been relatively low key on their coverage of this. Malaysia too has a similar death penalty law so I guess another death of a Malaysian isn’t worth reading. But, very vocal in their criticism of the sentence is of course the various Western NGO like Amnesty International, and back here, The Online Citizen (TOC) for short. There was also a petition that was circulated petitioning the President to commute the sentence to a life sentence.

The gists of the appeals are that the MDP is barbaric and draconic and it does not give the Judges any option of sentencing. Some argued that Yong was young, got misled and fell into bad company, didn’t know what he was doing and on compassionate ground, deserve a second chance. Some people talked about the family of Yong who are left to pick up the pieces. Others talked about Yong’s life – that it is a waste of a young life. But did they consider the number of lives and families lost as a result of Yong’s action. If we do not have the MDR, how many more runners will there be in Singapore and consequently how many more innocent lives will be lost?

While I am saddened that a young life has to be snuffed out, and while I agreed that the death penalty is a very barbaric tool of punishment, somehow I am not convinced of the merits of the appeal. Sure, it will be great to save a life but at what cost to society? As the Law Minister rightfully pointed out, if we give weight to his age and background, would that not encourage the syndicate to use younger people? Already, the trend by oversea syndicate seems to be to use ladies as mule and it will be a nightmare of unimaginable proportion if they start using teenagers to do their drug running!

Yong has been running drugs since the age of 17. I doubted his argument that he did not know it was drug. He went in with his eyes wide open. There is a price to be paid for everything and in his case, he has to pay the ultimate price.

Yes, some argue that come what may, there will be drug traffickers and the problem will never be eradicate even with the MDR. So we might as well follow the example of the other countries that has outlawed the death penalty since it is of not much use. I beg to differ. It is sad but if his death can deter just 1 more person from trafficking in drug, it will be worth it. Do we want to be like Amsterdam where there are legalized drug taking and all social ills associated with it are swept under the carpet? Do we want to be like Mexico where drug barons slug it out openly in the streets killing innocent bystanders? No ~ until some people can come up with a better solution, the MDR should stay and all those, whether young, old, female or gay or whatever, be warned!